Ahimsa and Jainism

Author(s): Vijayvallabhsuri
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi

Page 72

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the different passages referring to asceticism and showing their contrast with those referring to ritualism, he concludes, “The origin of such ascetic poetry found in the Mahabharata and Puranas may have been either Buddhist or Jaina or the parable passages may all go back to the same source of an ascetic literature that probably arose in connection with Yoga and Sankhya teaching."1 The Sankhya and Yoga schools, as we have seen above, may have been non-Vedic in origin. When some of the Vedic Brahmanas were convinced of the Nivrttipara path or asceticism and left ritualism, the schools which accepted the authority of Vedas and also the superiority of Brahmanas by birth got slowly assimilated to the Vedic cult. Probably amongst Sramana sects, Sankhyas were the first to accept the authority of the Vedas and the superiority of Brahmanas by birth; and perhaps this may be the reason why we find Sankhya teachings reflected in the early Upanisads.
Whatever may be the case, this brief survey points out to one fact and that is that by the tine of Mahavira and Buddha the Sramanas were a powerful influence affecting to the spiritual and ethical ideas of the people. Even though by
1. Ibid., page 40.